Summer road trip from SFO to Magic Mountain, any recommendations?

Hi!

I'm from San Fracisco and I'll make a trip to Six Flags with some classmates this summer. We're all 17-18 years old and we're about to finish school so we deserve this. We're going to ask for transportation and share a shuttle to LA (to reduce cost and expenses haha ) and extern our adventure to the downtown and Hollywood blvd. Do you recommend any other attraction? Is the CityPASS worthy? We're about to spend a week there..

Thanks! we appreciate tips, comments, recommendations, websites, etc. :D

Not much info to go on but this sounds like a disaster as briefly described above.

If you're not driving, then Six Flags and the other areas are complex logistical issues if it's a group and with luggage.

Before you even get too far down this path, you should identify which hotels will rent to 18 year olds. Do you have a credit card? All hotels require a credit or debit card. If only a DEBIT CARD, just note that the hotel will put a hold on your card, meaning they will FREEZE ADDITIONAL FUNDS of god knows how much (could be $250-$500), and those funds won't be available again until well after your stay. Staying at 2 different hotels, then the amount of money you need in the account that you can't spend while on your trip doubles.

Finally, Hollywood BLVD is really not something all that exciting. It's a large concentration of tourists, with nothing to do once you see the outside of the Chinese Theater and unless you're getting in to see Kimmel, I would suggest any number of other things to do in SoCal.

Erick Clifford said:
we deserve this.

Wait a minute. Don't we all?

Anyone else think he was traveling from Six Flags Ohio for a bit?

CreditWh0re said:

Not much info to go on but this sounds like a disaster as briefly described above.

If you're not driving, then Six Flags and the other areas are complex logistical issues if it's a group and with luggage.

Before you even get too far down this path, you should identify which hotels will rent to 18 year olds. Do you have a credit card? All hotels require a credit or debit card. If only a DEBIT CARD, just note that the hotel will put a hold on your card, meaning they will FREEZE ADDITIONAL FUNDS of god knows how much (could be $250-$500), and those funds won't be available again until well after your stay. Staying at 2 different hotels, then the amount of money you need in the account that you can't spend while on your trip doubles.

Finally, Hollywood BLVD is really not something all that exciting. It's a large concentration of tourists, with nothing to do once you see the outside of the Chinese Theater and unless you're getting in to see Kimmel, I would suggest any number of other things to do in SoCal.

thanks, we found a hotel very close to hollywood blvd which is the cheapest (budget inn) $80 per night aprox and well located. I found that the citypass card suggest SoCal attractions so we might take that. We'll go to the ripleys museum and madame tussauds, chinesse theater and all that stuff.. Do you know other attractions? We will probably go to Sea World as well..

Thanks!

Seaworld is all the way in Sandy Eggo. I'd rather go to Knotts and have biscuits and boysenberry butter.

^This. Of course, on the other hand, the Belmont Dipper is only a stone's throw from Sea World...

There's also a little place up the road, what is it? Disneysomething-something?

The thought of the 80 buck a night budget inn "very close" to Hollywood Blvd makes me change my mind. NObody deserves that!
(The hookers and the crack will be extra, btw...)

Do a google search on youth hostels in the LA area. You are young, it might be a better option than a hotel and a lot cheaper, too. I know a lot of times they will offer some sort of guidance or even actual tours for transportation. You might be able to get tours, such as gray line tours, that will show you all the best LA has to offer.

As far as parks, you can never go wrong with Disneyland or Knotts. Both are good quality parks. Magic Mountain may be difficult unless you have your own transportation. Same with Sea World/Belmont Park.

About 3 years ago I stayed in a hostel in LA and took transit out to SFMM. It almost took 3.5 hours from bed to the front gate (using multiple transit agencies), and X2 was down all day which was a bummer (but not surprising, because it's down often). The park was pretty good otherwise.

I would recommend PodShare for staying at. I had a blast at their Hollywood location, although depending on the size of your group you could probably keep the cost down if you all just squeeze into a hotel room.

Do spend some time by the boardwalk/beach, as if it needs to be said.

Cheap hotel on Hollywood Blvd? Let's just say you'll probably come back with some colorful stories. That being said, go check out a television show taping and the cemetery behind Paramount Studios while you are there. And try to get a car. It will be worth it, especially for such deserving people. ;)

Consider a side trip to Knott's too.

Santa Monica...

Just got back from San Diego two weeks ago. If you're solely in it for the thrills, Sea World and Belmont will be a disappointment. Manta is great, but it's not worth the drive and J:TA is decent but everything in LA proper, Anaheim, or Valencia is a better thrill option. That said, if you like marine life, Sea World is a definite gem. Belmont is kind of a borderline dump and the Giant Dipper is worth a spin or two, but not much else was worth doing to us.

Some of you are stuck in the "Pretty Woman" time of Hollywood. It has changed a lot since the subway arrived in the mid 90's. It is a hip area now with plenty of condo towers to be build and no hookers(sorry to disapoint some) on Hollywood Blvd. The nightlife is amazing, but that does not help 17/18 year old unfortunately.

Like others pointed out, I would go with a hostel, especially by the beach. When I was your age, I worked at two that I could highly recommend . First one is in Santa Monica, just between the beach, pier(which even has a coaster) and the third street promenade and mall. They also offer trips to Magic Mountain, Knotts or Disney for certain days. You will pay a little extra for the service, but transportation is included and saves you so much time vs public transportation(which I love and now the new tram from Santa Monica to Downtown L.A. is in service) http://hilosangeles.org/

Second place I worked was in Venice Beach, which is the ultimate place for guys your age as the area is a themepark in itself. The Venice Beach Cotel is a no frills Hostel, clean though and kinda designed that you can easily make new friends. http://venicebeachcotel.com/de/

Both places are excellent and close to public transportation(Big Blue Bus/Santa Monica, metro.net rest of L.A.) which is better in L.A. then some people would assume(Express Buses/Light Rail/Subway)

Have fun! I visited L.A. for my first time when I was 17 and ended up living and went to school/worked there for over a decade. (Btw, check out the UCLA Campus in Westwood, it is awsome!)

I'd say save the wax museum, Ripley's, etc for Niagara Falls, Myrtle Beach, or Wisconsin Dells. There too much to do in CA to waste time in tourist traps. (But then again, you're already from CA, so I guess it's not like you've never seen the ocean before.)

If you're going to be in the city area, I'd check out the Peterson Automotive Museum myself. It's right by the LaBrea Tarpits, which is an interesting, but short visit as well. Venice Beach was mentioned earlier, which, yeah, is a pretty cool place to hang out, especially for your age. From there you should be able to walk to Santa Monica Pier, which has a small, but somewhat fun roller coaster, and a Ferris Wheel which, IMO, is quite fun because it comes down over the water. And the Promenade is okay for higher end shopping as well as people watching. (If you didn't do enough of that on Venice Beach, but a whole different crowd.) Oh, and don't get stopped by everyone trying to sell you something, including all of the "up and coming rap stars" trying to sell you their demo for only $5.00.

And yeah... be very very careful with the cheap hotels in tourist areas. Most are filthy, noisy, and no good. At the very least, read some hotel reviews on Google, Travelocity, etc before committing.

kpjb said:
Anyone else think he was traveling from Six Flags Ohio for a bit?

Yes, my thoughts exactly at first. I had to check the date on the topic.

try youtube video of what to do and not check it out for all your travel needs i like it a lot jim

Alexatucla said:

Some of you are stuck in the "Pretty Woman" time of Hollywood.

Crap! I guess I haven't been to Hollywood since before the subway came (and we ran into Wil Weaton at a record shop). ;)

Record Shop? Yeah, we are old!lol